I have bought a very old Singer 29K1 (1905) and the directional coloumb is stuck. I have checked if maybe the lkocking screw is activated and/or broken off but it seems to be non existend.
I suspect corrosion is the guilty party. I have the piece (the head of the machine) soaking in special loosening oil and hope it will be fried some time soon.

Any ideas to go about the directional coloumb getting unstuck ???? Most likely due to the original snug fit of the pieces and some corrosion it will not turn anymore....

Further I was to enthousiastic in dismantling the shuttle driving mechanism and I am unsure about what the assembly procedure is ... Any help with that ??

Hello,
We have had this problem before when we have rebuilt these & we have found that soaking really doesn't seem to help much.We clamp it like you have it & take off the 2-screws & washer at the top & get a brass or aluminun bar & hammer it out the bottom.You don't have to hit it real hard.What happens is the old oil dries up almost glueing it together.
Good Luck
Bob

thanks for the swift reply. I tried it with a bolt and nut and some beafy piece of steel and just put tension on the inner bit... A few "gentle" taps with a plastic hamer did the trick.
I got the machine working again but it needs some little TLC still:
1. the presser bar doesn't fully come down. most likely some corrosion on these parts aswell. Helping it by hand will get it down all the way...I suspect the slide which lets the presser bar come up when one uses the lifting lever. It has a rod mechanism which is most likely to snug a fit...or maybe some dirt or dried up oil as well.

2. the end where the pulleys are is making nasty noises. the see saw arm (top bit) has some roller bearing on it and it runs inside the pulley wheel. I have to check that piece again. Maybe it is not clean enough.
the roller bearing seems to have the tendency to get stuck/catch on something on some places in that grove. Not sure how to tackle this problem.

3. I need to figure out some way to mount a motor to it.
I have sitting a 0,25 BHP electric motor with a 35 mm pulley on it. The motor is designed to run at 3000 rpm max. So I probably need some sort of reduction gear system to slow the beast down.
I was thinking of using some hard wood wheels and some bicycle main crank bearings (very strong pieces of kit), some bolts/nuts/washers, some leather belts (mainly used on threadle systems) and some pieces of hi end plie wood sheet for construction. Maybe even the far sided surface of the machine ( the area underneath the side handwheel) can be used to mount the reduction rig to it ?

Wish me luck chaps... From the looks of it she is not yet sewing leather any time soon.